Soft Boys Bask in 'Moonlight' / Hitchcock and band returning to stage

Published 4:00 am, Sunday, April 1, 2001

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Because Robyn Hitchcock still has an active solo career, he's distinguishing that from this Soft Boys reunion by not using any solo shots to promote the Soft Boys. Enclosed is a current Soft Boys shot with Robyn at the far right. less

Because Robyn Hitchcock still has an active solo career, he's distinguishing that from this Soft Boys reunion by not using any solo shots to promote the Soft Boys. Enclosed is a current Soft Boys shot with ... more

Soft Boys Bask in 'Moonlight' / Hitchcock and band returning to stage

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You'd think Robyn Hitchcock, 48, would be happy with the fervent cult following his solo work has attracted over the past two decades with hits like "Balloon Man" and "So You Think You're in Love." But instead of sitting around and sipping on fancy coconut drinks, the droll British singer-songwriter and subject of the 1998 Jonathan Demme documentary "Storefront Hitchcock" has re- formed his old band, the Soft Boys, and hit the road. They play Saturday at the Fillmore.

The psychedelic garage rock group, which served as a major inspiration for early R.E.M., may have hit its peak in 1980 when it released its classic second album, "Underwater Moonlight." But Hitchcock is just now understanding the newly reissued disc's supernatural appeal.

In Austin, Texas, to kick off the American leg of the band's reunion tour at the annual South by Southwest music industry summit, he sits in his hotel room and whispers while his girlfriend sleeps in the next bed.

"That album is not part of its time," he says. "It doesn't reek of 1980. It doesn't have that new-wave chug. And it was also a good combination of people. Although it isn't particularly of its time, we all coincided right."

On the scale of comebacks, anticipation for the Soft Boys' may fall slightly closer to Loverboy than the Who. But the project has really put a fire under Hitchcock's posterior.

His solo career crested in the late '80s, when paisley pop threatened to go mainstream on the back of jangly guitar hits by the likes of the Bangles and Prince. His albums "Queen Elvis" and "Eye" even briefly clawed their way out of the college radio slums. But mainstream success dutifully remained out of reach.

The singer-songwriter then spent most of the last decade making increasingly self-indulgent and off-kilter folk records like "Moss Elixir" and "Jewels for Sophia" (actual song title from the latter: "You've Got a Sweet Mouth on You, Baby") which excited critics but left fans nonplussed.

The film by Academy Award-winning director Demme ("Silence of the Lambs," "Philadelphia") didn't help matters. In it, the singer and crew take over an empty storefront in New York City's East Village and stage a series of impromptu concerts. It was a good way for a major film company to score an easy $2 million tax write-off.

"People have been very enthusiastic," he says. "There seems to be quite a buzz. We certainly have a lot more publicity and promotion for this release than we ever had in our lifetime. When 'Underwater Moonlight' first came out, we did three interviews total -- two in New York and one in London. This time we've already done more than we can count."

It's hard to explain the exact appeal of "Underwater Moonlight." The original album appeared in a musical landscape overrun by punk burnouts (Buzzcocks, the Exploited) and grown men in pirate shirts and kabuki makeup (Adam and the Ants, Ultravox). Standout tracks like "I Wanna Destroy You" and "Queen of Eyes" present a surreal hybrid of Byrds-inspired harmonies and "Monty Python" lyrics. The record was so weird and unconventional and wonderful for its time, the Soft Boys couldn't help but bank on an eternity of cultdom.

"I felt and still feel kind of to one side of time," Hitchcock says. "Although, if you look at the broad map of rock 'n' roll, the Soft Boys fit pretty comfortably between the Beatles and Oasis, even if we were never on that scale. Musically, it's absolutely there. We fit right in the middle of it like a spider in a web. Because of the way things went and because of the people we are, it's kind of had a slow-release effect."

The Soft Boys attempted to reunite once before with less promising results. It was 1994, and only a small faction of the original lineup was onboard. It failed miserably, mostly because instead of focusing on the songs from its one good album, "Underwater Moonlight," the band attempted to celebrate its entire,

extremely uneven back catalog. Hitchcock summarily fired his then manager.

This time he's determined to do it right.

"I just think there are certain times when you hit certain peaks, and you can't repeat them," he says. " 'Underwater Moonlight' was a certain combination of songs and people that was good, but we couldn't have done a follow-up. Maybe we could now, 20 years later, but it wouldn't sound anything like 'Underwater Moonlight.' Once you've done that, you don't go back there."